Doctoral Dissertation Research: Effects of Paleopolploidy on Genome Composition and Evolution in Agavaceae

全基因组复制或多倍体是进化中的一种重要现象，已经在包括脊椎动物、真菌和陆地植物在内的几个不同的谱系中得到了表征。多倍体在开花植物中尤其普遍，因为大多数物种，如果不是所有物种，在其进化史上的某个时候都有过基因组复制事件。对编码蛋白质的DNA序列和染色体大小变异的分析表明，龙舌兰科开花植物的起源和早期多样性可能是由基因组复制引起的。这项研究将利用代表龙舌兰科所有主要谱系的物种的数百个基因的高通量测序来检验这一假说，并评估基因含量和基因功能的差异如何影响物种形成和染色体进化。这项研究的结果将有助于加深对影响全基因组复制事件后重复基因命运的因素的理解。此外，该项目还包括一个重要的培训部分。这项研究将使用最先进的基因捕获、测序和计算技术。本科生将接受这些技术的培训，并将学习如何进行比较基因分析。

Whole genome duplication, or polyploidy, is an important phenomenon in evolution and has been characterized in several different lineages including vertebrates, fungi and land plants. Polyploidy is especially prevalent in flowering plants where most, if not all, species have had a genome duplication event at some point in their evolutionary history. Analyses of protein-coding DNA sequences and chromosome size variation suggest that the origin and early diversification of the flowering plant family Agavaceae may have been spurred by genome duplication. This study will utilize high-throughput sequencing of hundreds of genes in species representing all major lineages in Agavaceae to test this hypothesis, and to assess how divergence in gene content and gene function have influenced speciation and chromosomal evolution.The findings of this study will contribute to a growing understanding of factors influencing the fate of duplicate genes following whole genome duplication events. In addition, the project includes a substantial training component. The research will employ state-of-the-art gene capture, sequencing and computational technologies. Undergraduates will be trained in these technologies and will learn how to perform comparative genetic analyses.